If you’ve been following along with us, you’ve likely heard me mention the 6 dollar, second-hand coffee table. It serves as an indoor craft table during the winter months, and an outdoor activity table during the warmer months. I love it because it’s large enough for the children to gather around comfortably, and its laminate top makes it stain and water-proof.

My Latest Vidoes

Creating your shaving cream magna doodle:

This morning, I took a can of shaving cream to the table, and presented the hooligans with this:

At the sound of the spray-can, they came running, and gathered around, curious about what I was up to. “Is it for us?” they asked. “Yep”, I said. “What do we do with it?” one of them asked. I replied very simply: “Whatever you’d like”.

There was a moment of hesitation, and then a few cautious fingers poked at the cream.

And it wasn’t long before they were burying their hands in the foam, and spreading it around the table, making swirls and pattern. Then they would wipe it all out and start fresh. That’s when I realized that what we had in front of us was just like a giant Magna Doodle!

Who doesn’t love a Magna Doodle? Make it life-size, and add a sensory twist and it’s better than ever! We made hand prints,

drew pictures, and created oodles of doodles, writing our names and swirling our hands and fingers around in the foam.It was such a wonderful sensory experience. The soft, fluffy shaving cream, little hands gliding around on the slippery table-top and it smelled amazing!

When the table became covered with patterns and drawings, they would slide their hands down the length of the table, swiping the surface “clean” to start again.

Cleaning hands:

We had a large bowl and a towel sitting beside the table, so the kids could rinse their hands whenever they wanted to.

For those who don’ t enjoy messy play:

One little guy wasn’t big on getting his hands as messy as this activity required, so after a while, I handed out some paint-brushes and they had a go with those.

Shaving cream is an absolutely delightful substance to in your sensory activities, but as always, you know your child best. If there are skin sensitivities or a risk of your child eating it, please hold off until your child is a bit older.

For more ways to play with shaving cream, please check our other posts:

We did this in our camp last year. We made sure the kids were wearing bathing suits first and it was a good thing as they ended up looking like snowmen after they were done. Then we just hosed them down.

This one is just TOO funny!
I’m also totally in shock that while randomly selecting the 10 pins I most want to try out in January… this is the second one that’s come from your site! 🙂
…I’m going to spend a lot more time exploring here! …thank you… my kids are going to LOVE this!